Paul Graener - The Flute of Sansouci

[don1rice]

Toscanini presented the above piece at the NBC Symphony concert of November 5, 1938.

I have wondered about it since I first heard the concert broadcast in 1962 by WRVR radio.

Knowing that Toscanini was virulently opposed to fascism and its followers, I have wondered how he decided to perform Graener's music. Graener joined the Nazi Party in April of 1933 and rose to replace Furtwangler from 1935 to 1941 as "vice-president of the Reichsmusikkammer. This position, previously held by Wilhelm Furtwängler, was a major governmental post within an arm of the Nazi Propaganda Ministry. " (Wikipedia)

The music is pleasant enough and beautifully played. So no complaint about that but does anyone know any more about this seeming inconsistency of Toscanini's feelings about fascism?

Just curiosity. No moral judgements to be made or questioned.

Thanks,

DonR

[Laurence Levine]

The work was written in 1930.  Toscanini probably knew of the music before the Nazis came to power and didn’t see fit to ignore the work.  It is not the same thing as joining the Bayreuth Festival after Hitler took over.

Laurence 


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[don1rice]

I didn't know the date of composition. That seems, at least, like a plausible explanation.

Thanks.

don

[Luciano Crivello]

Toscanini conducted the Flute of San-Souci with the New York Philharmonic on 3, 4, 5 (Students concert) and 6 December 1931

The other items of the concerts were J.C. Bach Sinfonia in E-Flat major, Mendelssohn Reformation and Pizzetti's Concerto per l'Estate.

From the New York Philharmonic Program. Die Flote von San Souci, the suite for chamber orchestra on this program. was publishd in 1930. Ther is no programmatic guide to the music, no preface or other explanation of the significance of the title. But the bearer is probably justified in associating Herr Graener's musical fantasy with the royal flautist Frederick the Great, and one of his favorite diversions at "Sans Souci", the little palace which be built for himself at Posdam.   

I do not know the reasons , apart from the purely musical ones,     for which Toscanini conducted that music on 1938. But he also continued to conduct the music of Richard Strauss ( I say this for the reasons quoted below).

Dell'Arte CD: "However, it was on September 22nd 1933, that Adolf Hitler signed a decree empowering the Ministry of Propagandato establish six Reich Culture Chambers for literature, press, radio, theatre, music and fine arts. The Reichmusikkammer was organised by Dr. Joseph Gobbels, the aim being to supervise the aesthetic and racial "problems" od German music. Richard Strauss was named as President, Pauld Graener, Vice President and Wilhelm Furtwangler, General Music Director. Graener held the post until 1941 and died in Salzburg in Nove,mber 1944, aged 72. Given Graener's prestigious position in Hitler's Third Reich, Toscanini's open hostility to Nazism and exact date of this particular broadcast, it is perhaps surprising that the performance took place at all - although it should in all fairness be pointed out that the piece was already in Toscanini's repertoire, (he had played it with the New York Philharmonic in 1931, two years before Hitler came to power).

"The evening otherwise brought to attention Graener's charming and nostalgic suite, 'The Flute of Sans Souci'. John Wummer was the solo flutist of the Graener's work, which admirably recaptures the spirit of the 'Gallant Style'. The New York Sun, Monday, November 7, 1938."

Probably Toscanini mainly cared about the beauty of music, regardless of political situations. Just as it happened when in 1916 he conducted the music of Wagner, despite the bombing of Padua.

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[B Bailey]

Very informative, Luciano. Wouldn't it have been wonderful if Toscanini had also repeated the Bach and Pizzetti for the NBC microphones? We only have one movement from Pizzetti's La Pisanella Suite with Toscanini on Victor acoustic. 

But Pizzetti himself recorded the Concerto dell'Estate. 

Toscanini was no admirer of Strauss the man, both for the Salome incident and Strauss' taking over what would have been Toscanini's Parsifals at the 1933 Bayreuth Festival. But the composer's official position in the Nazi regime was more or less thrust upon him and was soon taken away when Strauss demanded his Jewish collaborator's name (Stefan Zweig) not be removed from their opera Schweigsame Frau. Nor was his intercepted correspondance with Zweig exactly flattering to a regime Strauss naively thought would quickly pass or moderate instead of growing more hard line. 

Strauss also had Jewish relatives he was anxious to protect.

How much of this Maestro could have known, who knows? But Bruno Walter also continued to play Strauss' music.

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[don1rice]

Thanks to all for your comments. I also discovered in the Toscanini Archives at the New York Public Library, that Toscanini has the scores of 3 other Graener pieces in his collection.

Comedietta, op. 82, Leipzig: Eulenburg.

Sinfonia Breve, op. 96, Leipzig: Eulenburg.

Variationen über ein russisches Volkslied, op. 55 , Leipzig: Eulenburg. 1922

and,

Die Flöte von Sanssouci, op. 88. Leipzig: Eulenburg.,. 1930 - Miniature score annotated by AT.

I am now convinced that his prior knowledge and performance of the piece were important in his 1938 performance. I also suspect that if he thought a piece was worth performing at all, it was, perhaps, worth repeating. 

As Toscanini said about Strauss, "To the composer, I take my hat off. To the man I put it back on." Perhaps the same applied to Graener.

DonR

[B Bailey]

And for those who like to see or follow the scores of works Toscanini conducted, the Graener is on IMSLP. PD outside the US. (My copy is from a library discard )

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